Welcome
to the Andrews Middle School web site.
April - June Message
We are coming into the home stretch! With this
newsletter is your child’s third term report card
and only one more term to go. It is hard to believe
how fast time is going by.
Many parents were able to attend our Parent
Workshops that we ran over this past term. For those
of you who didn’t attend, it is important that you
take an active part in your child’s education. You
should be checking your child’s agenda book each
night, check homework- is it completed? Is it in a
place where your child knows where it is so that
they can pass it in the next day? Another area we
discussed was the art of studying. If your child
comes home and says there is no homework for that
night, ask them to review things with you. Go
through their notebooks and re-read notes from class
discussions. The act of re-telling you the
information they learned in class will help them to
retain more information. And, lastly, have your
child read every night. They can read any material
that is of interest to them but the task of reading
will improve their reading skills. Parents need to
be an active part of their child’s educational team.
We need to work together, the school, teachers,
parents and the student. Together we can work to may
every child successful.
As we move towards the end of the year it is
important that those students who are in danger of
failing should focus on homework, seek extra help
and try to bring their grades up this term. I am
working with other administrators to develop a plan
for summer school which may include any student who
fails Math and/or Language Arts. The requirements
for these subjects and MCAS testing make them
important subjects to be passed and understood by
every child.
December 2003/January 2004 Message
Coming home with this newsletter is your child’s first
term report card. How did they do? Was homework an issue? Did your child make
good grade’s but could do better? Does you child have trouble studying to
prepare for a test or quiz? Well, you play a role in helping your child be
successful in school. Developing good organizational skills is a key ingredient
for success in school and in life. You can help put routines and systems in
place to help your child “get it together.” Here are some strategies that you
can use to help your child get and stay organized:
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Use a checklist- help your child get in the habit of
keeping a “To do list.”
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Organize homework assignments- Think about how much
homework there is and organize time to complete all assignments.
-
Designate a study space- create a quiet area in your
home where your child can work. All supplies should be near by. This will allow
you to monitor progress.
-
Set a designated study time- have your child review
their schedule and set a time each day to work on homework. For some students,
they may need a break after school and it is better to complete homework before
or after dinner.
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Conduct a weekly clean-out. Spend time once a week with
your child going through their notebooks. File old papers, clean out the
backpack and take out anything that is not needed.
These are a few things that you as a parent can do to
help your child. Take time to speak with your child about their report cards.
Ask how they are feeling about their grades and what goals they would like to
set for a second term. Working together we can help all of our children be
successful!
October/November 2003 Message
Welcome to a new school year! We are off to a great
start. This year we will continue our work to become a Turning Points School.
Turning Points is a whole school reform model for middle school aged children.
Each newsletter, I will share information about our work and a different
principle of Turning Points. This month’s focus is “Creating a caring climate
of shared educational purpose”. This means that as we develop as a school we
must all work together, teachers, parents, and the community to create a school
community where we all have a shared vision of our educational purpose. At our
professional development day our faculty put some finishing edits on a draft
vision statement for our school. We will be sharing that statement with our
parents and students for your comments and thoughts. We must all have a shared
vision of what we want our school to be and the type of education experience
our children will have. Take an active part in the school this year. Help us
create a caring climate and share our educational purpose. Attend our P.T.O.
meetings, come a Parent Coffee, take part in one of the many opportunities we
have for you to be an active part of our school.
March/April 2003 Message
As many parents know or have heard me discuss, our
school is undertaking a whole school reform model called "Turning Points".
Turning Points seeks to create challenging, caring, and equitable middle
schools that meet the needs of young adolescents as they reach the "turning
point" between childhood and adulthood. Recognizing that each child comes with
unique strengths, challenges, and needs, Turning Points teachers maintain high
expectations for all their students, hold a vision that their students will
leave middle school able to: *Think relatively, *Identify and solve complex and
meaningful problems, *Know one' self- one's passions, strengths and challenges,
*Lead healthful lives, *Be ethical and caring citizens of a diverse world. Over
the next few months I will use this newsletter to educate parents about our
work with Turning Points and the six Turning Points Practices. Parents play an
important role. I would like to invite all parents to an information and
planning meeting about Turning Points on Tuesday evening, March 11, 2003 at
7:00 at the school.
January/February 2003 Message
Our first term comes to a close Thursday, November 7,
2002 which means we are already one fourth of the way through the school
year. Our report cards will be done through our school management
software this year for the first time. This software allows us to keep
all of our school and student information in one place including our schedules,
attendance records, grading and discipline.
As we issue our first report card I want to review our
criteria for Honor Roll and Honorable Mention. Students who make High
Honors have A's in all subject that receive a letter grade and all S's in
Exploratory Subjects. Honors is for students that receive A's and B's in
graded classes and S's in Exploratory classes, and Honorable Mention is for
students who have A's, B's, and one C in graded classes and all S's in
Exploratory Classes.
Our Exploratory Teachers have been meeting this year to
continue to develop a stronger curriculum for their subject areas. We are
having some difficulty with students showing less respect for Exploratory
Teachers. Please join with me in explaining to your child that all adults
in the building should be respected, and that our Exploratory Classes are an
important part of their education and can keep students from making the Honor
Roll!
Update on our Phone Calling System
I hope you have enjoyed hearing my voice through our master phone calling
system. We have turned on a new part of the system which will allow you
to re-hear any message by pressing the star button on you telephone during any
message. If you are not receiving our messages please let the office
know.
October 2002 Message
We have just completed the first half of the first term
of the year. Progress reports will be sent home with students on Friday,
October 11, 2002. Please review your child's progress, look at the comments,
and work work with your child to set goals and to develop ways to improve
during the second half of the term. All teachers offer extra sessions two
afternoons a week after school in addition to our homework clubs that run every
day. Each new year brings with it an opportunity to set goals, reach higher,
and seek to improve our students' learning
If you have not seen your child reading every night then
they are not completing all of their homework! We have made reading a
building-wide goal this year and asked each student to read 20 minutes each
night. We are in the process of planning a school-wide book sale and we also
have books for sale at each of our evening events. Need a good birthday or
holiday gift for a middle school child? Give them a book!
Our MCAS scores are in and have been mailed home to all
of our families. At the October Parent Coffee on Wednesday, October 16th at
9:00 a.m. I will present our school's scores. I will repeat the presentation
that evening at 7:00 p.m. for parents to attend. In addition to sharing our
scores, we will also share ways you can help your child prepare to take the
MCAS
September 2002 Message
Welcome to a new school year, the second for the Andrews
Middle School.
Three things that I would like to share with you as
parents in our school:
1) It is
very importanat that your child attend school everyday, on time and for the
full day. While we understand when a child is sick and
needs to remain home, please try to schedule appointments and family vactions
on non-school time. Your child's learning is very important to us and the more
they are in school, the more we are able to teach them.
2) Please encourage your child
to read every night. I would like
to put a standard homework assignment in place that that students read for 20
minutes every night. Reading is a core area of skill and knowledge that will
impact your child's ability throughout his or her entire life, The more a child
reads, the better their comprehension and decoding skils become. Student may
read anything, a book or a magazine, at the reading level they are most
comfortable with. The important thing is that they read.
3) Please become involved with
us this year. Research tells us
that the connection between home and school, and a parent's active involvement
in the child's school, has a direct impact on student achievment. Join the PTO
and attend meetings, run for the School Site Council, offer to help out in the
office or the library, or attend Parent Coffes with the Principal. Get
involved!
The building is shining from top to bottom. The schedule
is done and our teachers are rested and ready for a new year!. Let's work
together to continue to create the very best learning, respectful, community we
can for our students.
Sincerely,
Ralph L. Watson, M.Ed.
Principal
Madeleine Dugger Andrews Middle School
watsor@medford.k12.ma.us
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